Translation help, Chinese antiques vocab.

[Tsunku]

Hey all

I'm working on a big translation project which is just about complete, save one bit that is giving me trouble do to all of the specific names of the items in this guy's collection. I don't know if these objects have set English translations of their names or not. If anyone can help out with some of this, I'd be much appreciative!

Here is the entire paragraph in question. The difficult bits are the names of the items, especially the first three lines, not the grammar so much.

本書共輯錄論文十八篇、彩圖百餘幀，文以詮論，圖以存真。內容包括夜明珠、古玉劍、山字鏡、青銅器、玉神獸、受命璽、代傳國璽、隋唐鏡、鈞瓷、岳飛玉璽、清名家印章和明清古墨等文物，以及明製墨名家程君房、方于魯生平研究，當代藏墨大家周紹良教授《蓄墨小言》補遺，南太平洋海盆古文明初探等專題。時間上，上自史前文化期，下至清朝末年；地域上，除中國外，遠至南太平洋島嶼。凡所涉及文物、專題、時間、地域，筆者都盡量徵引各種文獻資料，以及陳述個人見解，或可為讀者作更深入研究之助。

I know this is pretty specialized, so not expecting too much, but anything would help!

-T

[wame]

as far as i know,there re no special translation for them,maybe you can invent the words or pharse youself .

like 山字鏡=mirror with character "shan"?

just for reference

[skylee]

Perhaps you could consider these -

夜明珠 - cobra stones (see http://www.jewellery.net.tw/knowledge-net5C.htm )

古玉劍 - ancient jade swords

山字鏡 - mirrors of "shan" design (see http://www.chungton.com.tw/no1/image0/index.htm item 11)

青銅器 - bronze ware

玉神獸 - jade devine beasts

受命璽、代傳國璽 - imperial seals

隋唐鏡 - mirrors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

鈞瓷 - Junci (see http://www.oakstrade.com/home.html ) or porcelain with Jun-style glaze (see http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/199806/13/0613108.htm ) or Jun-style porcelain

岳飛玉璽 - jade seal(s) of Yue Fei

清名家印章 - famous seals (or seals of celebrities) of Qing Dynasty

明清古墨 - old ink blocks/sticks of Ming and Qing Dynasties

[Jim]

Isn't 青銅器 better verdigris objets d'art or similar?

[xiaocai]

青銅 means alloys of copper and tin in various proportions, verdigris is 銅綠 or 鹼式碳酸銅 in my dictionary. I agree with skylee.

[Tsunku]

Thanks for the help guys!

I went ahead and and invented my own translations for some of them, like "Mountain Script Mirrors," and for some of them I might just not even bother, like Jade Bi -- I think the people reading this will probably be familiar enough with some of the terminology that I can get away with just calling a Bi a Bi instead of trying to come up with a word that means ceremonial big round jade things with a whole in the middle ...

As a whole, I gotta say this is probably the most difficult job I've handled so far. Thanks again for the advice.

-T

[Tsunku]

Here's another one. This I can translate, but the references don't make sense to people who, well, don't already know what he's talking about anyway, who would be Chinese speakers anyhow, making the translation of this phrase kind of pointless, right? Here's the phrase:

識珍者必拾濁水之明珠，賞氣者必採穢藪之芳蕙

Any ideas for a translation that non-Chinese would understand? Should I just go for the literal?

[Jim]

Something like 'true connoisseurs will always prefer their beauty set against the mundane - the pearl from turbid waters, the lotus fragrant in the muddy pool'? I know there's a better word than mundane for here but you get the drift.

[Tsunku]

That's a much better translation than the one I came up with. I asked Chinese friends about it and they were trying to tell me Zhu Shui was the name of some place. Blasted classical Chinese.